Townhouses planned next to Manchester science museum
PH Property wants to bring a site off Great John Street in the city centre back into residential use for the first time since the mid-twentieth century.
The developer is progressing plans for 21 three-bed townhouses on a site next to the city’s Science and Industry Museum that was once home to terraced housing.
More recently home to the former Breeze Studios within the Granada estate, the plot could now be returned to residential use under plans designed by Jeffrey Bell Architects.
PH has launched a pre-planning consultation on the proposals.
Surrounding an internal courtyard, the homes would front Great John Street, Lower Byrom Street, Grape Street, and Atherton Street and would “re-establish the site’s historic street layout”, according to PH.
Each house would have a basement parking space and a roof terrace.
PH is also behind plans to convert the Equitable Buildings off St Anns Square in Manchester into apartments.
Danny Gale, land director at PH Property Holdings, said: “We are excited to bring our experience of delivering premium, design-led homes to this unique site in Manchester city centre.
“Our ambition is to create a high-quality, sensitive development that complements its historic surroundings and provides new family housing in a sustainable and vibrant location.”
Asteer Planning, Tyler Grange, Dunham Ecology, and Counter Context make up the project team.
Excellent, get them built and then build some more!
By Dan P
Now this is what Manchester needs more of.
By Anonymous
Fantastic!
By jrb
Great to see new town houses in the city, there is a real need for those who want to stay central but dont want to live in an apartment.
By J
Lack of density but I suspect there will be a lot of demand for these
By Anonymous
Looks like a great scheme. Makes a nice change rather than a block of flats
By Steve
Looks like BNG would be a nightmare here, curious to see if they can deliver it onsite.
I also notice no mention of affordable housing. The council should be asking how they can afford to create basement parking but not AH. Ofc AH isn’t really part of their business model here but policy is policy.
By Almoravid
People on here regularly begging for green space in the city centre and this proposal wipes out a ready made semi-mature green area. While I like the concept, I am not sure about the removal of a not insignificant number of trees to achieve it
By Bradford
Townhouses are a great addition. I hope that these are to the same standard as those in Timekeepers Square in Salford.
By Elephant
@ Bradford
As someone who begs for green space and has seen Manchester redevelop at a disproportionate rate to the amount of green space being delivered, I would normally welcome your comment. However the green space is currently unusable. It would be useful if access could be provided to a public park in the middle.
Either way, schemes like this should be welcomed throughout the city. Density or not, these sort of schemes provide a variety of living spaces which make a city feel and look much more livable. Manchester is thriving already, lets deliver some of these for a change.
By Anonymous
Close the bars and local nightlife, this is now a residential area
By Anonymous
Far to low density for the city centre. You could easily create an extra 400-500 homes on the side in a skyscraper instead. I do love the look of them, but surely we should be building properties for the masses, and not a handful of properties for millionaires. High density flats for the city centre, houses for the suburbs!
By MC
Looks great, this kind of development is the sign of a maturing property market in the city centre. I suspect we will see more of this type of city centre development in the future.
By Anonymous
So all the mature trees to be chopped down in a part of town where there aren’t many, an underground car park that wouldn’t normally be permitted now in a location with excellent public and active travel links, and making an unforced choice to build very expensive houses at low density is apparently the new way of dodging affordability requirements. Nothing to detain the MCC Planning Committee then…
By Anonymous
Dunno about this. Whilst it’s a good scheme in isolation, I don’t think this plot is right for townhouses.
By Rofolfino
I am a great advocate for green space and Manchester is hopeless at creating it and then even worse at maintaining it. I can’t understand why Castlefield is so under-utilised. That is a very large space with water, and yet apart from that tiny bit of a park facing Campfield, the rest is just paved. Surely that could be a huge urban park, and combined with the Highline park, could be something very special. It is close to thousands of new tenants. Why is MCC so afraid of trees and fields?
By Elephant
I think the lack of density probably reflects proximity to listed buildings/conservation area.
By YIMBY
I read some are calling for density but I’m pretty sure that falls in the Castleford st John’s conservation area so you would struggle building anything taller than the surrounding buildings
By Tomo
This is an interesting and worthwhile development. It brings more families into the city; owner occupiers who will live and work in the city, and will put down roots. Surely this is a more valid propostion than another overly dense buy to let rental building. The city needs more of this not less. The cars are really not an issue….they’ll never be used during the day.
By anonymous
Not sure about the “no public access so biodiversity doesn’t count argument” or why none of this wasn’t considered in wider plans for Old Granada Studios – seems a bit like let’s sit on it and get rid when everything else is sorted.
Also the nice houses for families argument. It won’t drive demand for schools near the centre as anyone who can afford at this price bracket will send them to existing private ones or have another house further out. And how many families are in the existing ones nearby of which there’s a fair few, or the ones inexplicably in an alley behind Canal Street, all of which were supposed to be catering for this supposedly un-met demand?
By Anonymous
Build less dense with more views and more green and demand will surge.
By Anonymous
Incredible work, city needs more schemes like this to compliment the high density schemes.
By James
no defensible space and the ground floor windows open onto the pavement. it would be far better to the smallest of front garden with railings, even if it is just one metre in width out from the properties.
By manchester man
the breeze studios were in the plans by Allied London were kept as a green space joined onto st johns gardens and the only green space to be enjoyed by everyone. not to be built on. there is wildlife in these gardens
By Julie Turner
Seriously? We need green space in this city, not 0.5million£ townhouses. But, hey, that won’t make a profit will it.
By Anonymous
They could have done some proper regency townhouses that would carry a massive premium – where’s the vision?
By Heritage Action
While schemes as such should be welcome throughout, the density is far too low for the city centre. Plus, it would be nicer to see the currently inaccessible green infrastructure on site preserved and made accessible. Once again, the priorities are wrong here.
By Anonymous
Due to the incredibly low density of such large housing in the central city, I imagine these will be incredibly expensive to compensate for the lack of bulk sales.
By EOD
These look great and provide a great mix of accommodation in the city centre. Any chance sales could be restricted to UK nationals to ensure they are not just used to park money for foreign investors?
By Anonymous
I really like this! Constantly saying not enough family housing in Manchester and agree with comment if you don’t want to live in an apartment but want to live in the centre! I am sure the scheme will be captured by BNG – however there are so many opps for MCC to increase green space…. with what they have – surely more could have been done with Piccadilly ‘gardens’. That’s just been constantly reinvented into more hard landscaping over the years!
By Lizzy Baggot